Huge turnout in Baltimore for Ravens’ victory parade

Posted by Michael David Smith on February 5, 2013, 12:24 PM EDT

Reuters

Baltimore is turning out in force to support the Super Bowl champion Ravens today.

The victorious Ravens are parading through Baltimore and making their way to a rally at M&T Bank Stadium, and the huge crowd seems so enthusiastic that the parade organizers may have been overwhelmed: Local TV station WJZ showed fans climbing over the barriers and onto the parade route to get near Ray Lewis. (When WJZ’s reporter on the scene attempted to reach Lewis to get a word from him, the police told him to get back.) The time of the rally was pushed back 30 minutes to give everyone more time to get through the crowd.

Players, coaches and team officials are riding military trucks on the parade route, and WJZ reported that there were concerns about fans going onto the parade route, with one reporter pointing out, “These military trucks are enormous and they would crush somebody.” Another WJZ reporter mentioned that the turnout seems more enthusiastic than when the Pope visited Baltimore.

At the outset of the parade, Lewis addressed the cheering crowd, saying, “Baltimore, I love you forever.” The feeling is obviously mutual.

hate on jealous haters. ravens won the superbowl and now we are celebrating. great time to be in baltimore. all of you jealous haters are welcome to join in and see how a class winning team does it. go ravens!!

I know the franchise has basically been successful since inception, but for such a young franchise the Ravens do have a lot of dedicated fans. They seemed to own the Superdome this past Sunday and turnout is strong today.

What an awesome outpouring of love in both directions- from fans to Ravens and from the Ravens to fans. Amazing energy! They could have lit up all of New Orleans with the energy generated today in downtown B-more!

Seeing 100,000 people all jumping together chanting the Seven Nation Army was as much fun as anyone could imagine!

@goodellisruiningtheleague
What a load of sour grapes! Many of us took off from good jobs! We love our Ravens and were showed it today!

@1phd
You wish you had someone like Ray on your sorry losing team. He is a great leader and we are proud to call him ours!

Went to M&T Bank today to celebrate the SuperBowl. I missed the 2000 parade, I wasn’t going to miss this one. Lord knows they don’t come that often. Lived around BMore my whole life and I have never seen an event like this. Absolutely amazing experience. People were even nice to each each other. Smiling, holding doors, etc… (another amazing experience in the city)

Even though we have our Beltway rivalry, i’m happy for the Ravens and their fans. Now only if the Orioles could win a championship this year that would be great…It’s hard being a Redskins and Orioles fan..lol

Ravens!!! I love my city, our fans and our team!!! Great stadium and one of the best front offices around!!! Thanks to all the people who cheer other teams giving is the congrats you are classy!!! Good luck to your teams in 2013!!! Football is awesome!!!

Baltimore County Fire Chief Kevin Cartwright said preliminary assessments reflect that at least 200,000 fans showed up at City Hall, War Memorial Plaza and filled the streets along the parade route from Holiday Street to Commerce Street to Pratt Street and ending at its destination at M&T Bank Stadium.

Thousands of fans were not permitted to enter the stadium after officials said it reached safe capacity by 10 a.m. — nearly 90,000 people in the stands and on the field.

The city of Baltimore has some of the greatest ever in the history of the game. They used to make sure all games for the Baltimore Colts were at 2:00 or shortly after so everyone was home from church by then.

They deserved this Super Bowl and my best friend is one of them. Congrats. Ya’ll are WORLD CHAMPIONS! 🙂